According to a new study from Kapwing, a large amount of videos circulating on YouTube are brainrot content and “AI slop”: a catch-all term for low-quality, AI-generated content that aims to generate views rather than provide real value.
Kapwing researchers tested this by creating a new YouTube account and tracking the first 500 videos recommended by the platform. Of these, 104 videos, about 21%, were classified as AI slop, while 165 videos, about 33%, fell into the broader “brain rot” category.
Brainrot features repetitive, bizarre or hypnotic clips that are easy to watch but lack substance. Overall, the results suggest that a significant portion of what new users see is automated content, rather than works created by human creators.
How much AI slop does YouTube actually deliver?
The scope of such content goes far beyond a few odd recommendations. Kapwing also analyzed trending YouTube channels in multiple countries and found 278 channels composed entirely of AI slop spread across the top 100 global rankings.
These channels are not small. Together, they have amassed billions of views and millions of subscribers, translating into estimated annual advertising revenue in the tens of millions of dollars. Some regions particularly stand out. In Spain, AI Slop channels have a combined total of more than 20 million subscribers, more than the total in the United States or Brazil.
South Korea’s slop channels have collectively generated over 8.45 billion views, while India’s largest AI slop channel alone has garnered more than 2 billion views. These rankings show that AI weakness is not limited to one market but is spreading worldwide.
Why is it spreading so quickly?
The problem lies less with individual creators and more with the incentives built into recommendation algorithms. AI-generated videos are cheap to produce, can be uploaded at scale, and are often optimized to arouse curiosity or endless scrolling.
New users are particularly at risk because the algorithm has no viewing history to guide recommendations. For YouTube, the results raise unpleasant questions. If a fifth of early recommendations are AI slop videos, it could change the way users experience YouTube before they ever find creators they actually want to watch.
While YouTube has introduced tools to curb deepfakes, I would like to see the platform provide better controls to limit AI leaks, similar to what TikTok already does. A report from Amazon Web Services (AWS) researchers says 57% of the internet may already be AI sludge.
That’s why DuckDuckGo offers tools to filter low-quality AI content, while some tools like Slop Evader go even further by restoring the web to the way it looked before generative AI took over.
As AI tools make it easier to flood platforms with synthetic media, the challenge will be deciding whether engagement alone should continue to drive what new viewers see first.
